Zooming In: The Intimate Panopticon and Pandemic Performance
Amanda Rose Villarreal
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AMANDA ROSE VILLARREAL (she, they) is an intimacy choreographer, immersive artist, and educator who earned their PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder. Amanda Rose is co-founder of the Journal of Consent-Based Performance and Associate Faculty with Theatrical Intimacy Education; they are also Assistant Faculty of Theatre Education at Cal State University Fullerton. Amanda Rose’s recent intimacy choreography credits include The Inheritance at Geffen Playhouse and Sanctuary City and Uncle Vanya at Pasadena Playhouse; recent publications include “Valha11a: Agency and Genre in Emergent Virtual Larp” in Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism and “Intimacy in Play: Training Actors for Agentic Symmetry in Unscripted Interactions” in the edited collection Experiential Theatres: Praxis-Based Approaches to Training 21st Century Theatre Artist (Routledge).
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Abstract
This article explores the ways in which Zoom creates an intimate panoptic structure for interaction, both in its framing and in the way the platform interacts with human psychology. Through an analysis of Zoom’s functionality and the philosophy of Foucault, this article identifies Zoom as an intimate panopticon which, interacting with the circumstances of social trauma experienced during the pandemic, has been used as a performance space throughout the past few years. This analysis calls for practitioners working with digital platforms to craft innovative performances to engage with specific approaches to creating trauma-informed, consent-based performance practices when working within this intimately panoptic experience. Furthermore, this article engages in PAR—Performance as Research—methodology, introducing a framework that I—as a director and intimacy choreographer—used in attempting to communicate stories of intimacy through this distanced and digital medium, reflecting upon this framework and offering this approach as a tool for others who are creating performance in the intimately panoptic Zoom stage.
This article explores the ways in which Zoom creates an intimate panoptic structure for interaction, both in its framing and in the way the platform interacts with human psychology. Through an analysis of Zoom’s functionality and the philosophy of Foucault, this article identifies Zoom as an intimate panopticon which, interacting with the circumstances of social trauma experienced during the pandemic, has been used as a performance space throughout the past few years. This analysis calls for practitioners working with digital platforms to craft innovative performances to engage with specific approaches to creating trauma-informed, consent-based performance practices when working within this intimately panoptic experience. Furthermore, this article engages in PAR—Performance as Research—methodology, introducing a framework that I—as a director and intimacy choreographer—used in attempting to communicate stories of intimacy through this distanced and digital medium, reflecting upon this framework and offering this approach as a tool for others who are creating performance in the intimately panoptic Zoom stage.
| etudesdec2022villarreal.pdf |
